Celebrate the Inauguration, Pray for Mark Driscoll

Those of you who believe in the power of prayer should pray for Mark Driscoll. Most of you have probably heard of him, as he is quite infamous. Not only does he regularly refer to a Bible he doesn’t believe in and set himself up as the representative of a God he seems not to know, but he also tweets things that show this to be the case. Here is an example of the result from earlier today:

If Driscoll thinks that Obama doesn’t believe the Biblebut he does, then Driscoll clearly has not read the Bible in full or carefully. I am sure that president Obama doesn’t believe the entire Bible, because no one who has read the whole thing carefully could do so, not only because it says things that no one today can accept, but also because its contents include different authors saying different things. But president Obama has shown himself to be aware of such issues related to the Bible’s diverse contents, and inspired by some of its core principles – even if also failing to live up to others of them, as we all do.

And so Driscoll’s tweet simply highlights the sad truth, namely that those who are most likely to accuse others of disregarding the Bible, with an implicit or explicit contrast with themselves, can only be those who are profoundly unfamiliar with the Bible’s contents. And yet so many Christians who share that unfamiliarity with the Bible follow after those who praise the Bible and denounce others based on their own ignorance of its multifaceted contents.

I had the privilege of listening to most of the presidential inaugural address live while watching it on a big screen at the Indiana History Center. I was impressed by the vision for progress, the clarity, the stand for equality, the appeal to core historic shared principles as a basis for that stand, and the passion with which president Obama appealed to the American public as part of “we the people,” calling on us to overcome obstacles and seek to do away with persistent injustice and inequality to the extent that we can. The challenge remains how to win over to a commitment to equality, love, respect, and consideration those who resist those things, the most disturbing and offensive of which, for me, are those who use a selective appeal to the Bible to justify selfishness, bigotry, racismand a variety of other things.

Related posts from Exploring Our Matrix:

I tend to take the approach that the worst thing to do with Internet trolls is to give them the oxygen of publicity. If everyone ignored all these attention-seeking outbursts, they’d go away.

Raymondafoss

I can’t believe that tweet by Mark Driscoll. Sad.

Straw Man

Don’t care about Mark Driscoll. It’s a bit sad, though, that the man who has killed about a dozen people every day since his PRIOR inauguration can so easily impress you with a pretty speech. Not so much as a, “Thanks for the pretty speech, Mr. President–and if you stop mass murdering children, I promise to offer some support for the lovely ideas contained therein”?

Is it the official position that mass murderers who talk about equality, charity, etc., get a free pass to continue mass-murdering? While being described lovingly as exemplary of Christian ideals?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/ James F. McGrath

I apologize if my expression of appreciation for the president’s stance on a number of points sounded like I was exempting him from criticism. That the United States has been so moved by the deaths of young children in our own country, but not the deaths as a result of our own policies and actions in other countries, disappoints me and saddens me greatly,

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=790058383 Michael Day

where are we MASS murdering children???? LOL you are all just fucking idiots. Making up shit as you go. We are NOT mass murdering children anywhere. Take a step back and fuck yourselves for making shit up. I’m not a DEM either. I’m a man that is tired of everyone talking down on our country.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/ James F. McGrath

Thank you for your comment. I do not, as a rule, allow profanity on my blog, as it cheapens the discourse. I am sure that if you have a point about those who have been killed as a result of the US military presence overseas, it can be made in an even better way without such language, whereas simply responding to what is arguably hyperbole on Straw Man’s part with vulgarity on your part doesn’t really help. It also means that this blog becomes one that is not open to people of all ages as potential readers. I thus kindly ask you to edit the comment.

Jarhead4CommonSense

He’s referring to the drone strikes that Obama uses regularly. There is much controversy that the number of militants vs civilians is being skewed in Obama’s favor, and not by the right but by service members. His concerns are not without merit, albeit he doesn’t consider the alternatives to Obama any less threatening, which is disheartening.

http://www.facebook.com/jtstewart3 Jane Tunning Stewart

There are those in the military who speak publicly and are extremists and who mightily dislike this President and want to see him fail. I wouldn’t believe them necessarily either. I would have to hear their remarks otherwise. Do their remarks contain words of hate or word that are demeaning. (I served in the US Army for 23 years) The Evangelicals and some Fundamentalists have for ions challenged people about their beliefs. What I think we have concerning Our President is a major issue of racism from individuals who really don’t understand racism with in their friends, their families, their communities, and themselves. It is cloaked racism. It is denial racism. It is preety much like when God from Adam and Eve and eaten apple and confronted them. It was somebody. And you justification for sinning in other Bible stories when the individual justifies their disobedience in others ways with is the form that racism takes today. Racism isn’t putting someone in chains and beating them. In these time it is believing that a Black man should not lead our Nation. It is believing that a Black person does not have the brains of a White person. It is believing that a Black man should not stand on a stage above them. It is making up reasons that this Black man should not be President. Justification why a Black should not be President. He is Muslim. He was born in Kenya. He does not believe in God. He does not know what it means to be an American. On and on and those allegations go. This site and most that I review are clean but boy looks at tweets and FB pages when our President is called the N word. Where they are calling for his impeachment. Where they call him a Muslim. Where they call for his assassination. The sickness goes on and on and on. Look on clean pages like this and all too often you will see what Blacks call code and what I call cloaked. Americans have so much to learn about persons of other ethnic groups, other religious groups, racial groups, nationalities, and so on. Were Mark Driscoll’s veiled racism? They might not be racism but they certainly are words of hate? Why does he hate like this? His words of hate are veiled (cloaked) by his kindness to pray. Really! I for one do not want this man praying for me; thank you.

Jarhead4CommonSense

Well Jane, I voted for Obama in ’04, and I can honestly tell you if you look at the numbers being presented, they look extremely GREAT! Too great in fact. To the point where it’s impossible to level an entire village and have virtually no collateral damage. While I am a somewhat sane individual and realize that pulling out of these warzones without stepping down is illogical, but I don’t like being lied to. He’s getting us out of the wars, and I respect that. I didn’t vote Romney, but I couldn’t vote for him for the lies, and the resigning of the Patriot act, another reason I hated Bush so much. NDAA-2012 was also disgusting.

This country is racist, sadly so. I grew up a military “brat”, I’d never heard a racist epithet til I started going to public school in Missouri in the 3rd grade. Man….did it rock my world. Humans fear the unknown. Fear can be manipulated, that is why we see such success in fear mongers like Rush, Bill, Sean, and Ann. I literally heard a man who is half latino say to me that there is a liberal agenda to “brown” America. And the fear is fed by pure ignorance, that is why it’s so bloody popular to defund education. A stupid population is easy to control. I’m not saying it’s alright, we have to fight against it every moment of every day. We can never give into that part of us that thinks, “if only I could be a selfish hateful obnoxious bastard to everyone”, because that isn’t what God wants.

Susanburns

I would like to add that the economic Darwinists need the boom and bust cycles to make the big bucks. But with this type of system there always needs to be losers; those people who are disenfranchised, the single moms, the old and children. They are the ones that get squeezed. President Obama thinks they deserve a safety net. I agree.

Jarhead4CommonSense

Straw,

It’s a bit preposterous to bring this point to bear when it really has not bearing on the subject matter. No, I didn’t vote for Obama in November, but I didn’t for the same reasons you posted your rant. His faith has always been in question from the right, absurdly so, and that alone is what this article addresses. Is he an exemplary? Not at all. However the Christian right, and the Republican party, and the multitude of “non-Republican” conservatives I know have no problem with more war, have no problem with preposterous slander, and have no problem getting all butt-hurt when you call them on it. Iraq was an out and out lie. We’re not the world’s police force, and we’re not being that police force because they are virtuous endeavors, but because of profit and greed. The Christian right went as far as to sanctify, in a short amount of months, the Mormon church, having gone from calling them cultists only minutes prior. That should indicate to you how tainted the Chistianists have become. I’ll take the black guy who made a confession of faith before a nation over Franklin Graham any day.

Jarhead4CommonSense

And furthermore, Straw, the US has known 39 years of peace in it’s entirety, so really you have less than 10 men who might be considered innocent of such crimes but then again the career politician has made it so even they don’t exist. Just sayin.

Erictt

“Is it the official position that mass murderers who talk about equality, charity, etc., get a free pass to continue mass-murdering? While being described lovingly as exemplary of Christian ideals?”And I thought Driscoll’s tweet was the dumbest thing I read all day.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=583664425 facebook-583664425

What a fool! (I mean, Driscoll.)

Susan Burns

I thought Strawman was referring to abortion.

Jarhead4CommonSense

the pro-rape types are usually throw around babykiller or something of that ilk, but it’s possible.

Mindy1719

I stand by Pastor Mark. What he said is true. Our President doesn’t believe in God like our founding fathers did. But I hope he someday will. We need to be a strong nation together with God and the church needs to help people out the most not the government. Normal life for some people, is day by day handouts – food stamps, free healthcare and phones. Its not a bad things, it just needs to be used in moderation. Its good for a season but God wants us to live an abundant life with Him. So I support Pastor Mark Driscoll on his tweet.

Claude

What do you think were the religious beliefs of our founding fathers?

Claude

Even if the religious beliefs of our founding fathers were what you think they are, how can you know what President Obama “really” believes? Since it’s practically impossible for a candidate who doesn’t profess to be a Christian to be elected president of the US, I think such speculation is futile. But if you do want to speculate, the president has both written about his conversion to Christianity and spoken about how his faith affects his approach to governing. Do you think he’s being cynical, or lying? Of course there’s a debate about the proper degree to which government and the private sector should be responsible for helping the needy, but I’m not sure what this has to do with what you describe as God’s wish for us to live the abundant life with Him. What is the connection?

How would Pastor Mark Driscoll know what President Obama knows about God? He is simply being uncharitable about something he can’t know. Are you saying as a Christian that you support this lack of charity?

Jarhead4CommonSense

Like our founding fathers did? Some of our founding fathers were deists and unitarians, which is why they pushed for freedom of religion to begin with. As for being a nation together with God, well, a nation itself has no soul, God doesn’t see lines on a map like we do, these are human limitations, and well beneath God’s vision of what he wants for humanity. God wants a relationship more personal than that, and as for government, well, then consider Romans 13:1 and then consider, if Jesus says to care for the poor, and the government is trying to care for the poor and you don’t want them to, then something is off. Not with the poor, nor the government. Poor don’t necessarily stay poor, and the governments don’t necessarily stay either.

Let’s be very clear, government, both parties, caused 10% of Americans or more to be unemployed. NAFTA, the housing bubble, the wars, started by one party and completed by another. Stop being preposterous in believing the Republicans have the Christian Rights back, because 8 years ago they were calling you psychopaths. They’ve only now realized you are indespensible to their greedy and malicious ends. If you look at statistics for last year, 3% of the population is on welfare, a little below 7% on unemployment, and the stupid phone program was started under Bush( you need to stop watching Faux News).

Jesus basically gave three solid mandates in his short ministry, Love God, love one another as you would yourself want to be loved, and care for the least of these. I am very thankful for my prosperity, and I work hard to honor those mandates. If your religious views reflect your political views, you are being tainted. If you think God’s views reflect your own views, most definitely you’re wrong. Obama declared his faith before the nation and the world and yet still you cling to the preponderence that he’s a Muslim? So a declaration of faith isn’t good enough anymore? Do his views truly need to reflect bible beaters everywhere before he’s a brother in Christ? Do we have to have an inquisition? Let me be very frank, Ann Coulter, Michelle Bachmann, less so, but even Rick Santorum taint the body of Christ, and it shows. They aren’t seen as Christians by how they love, they are seen as Christians by how they hate. By how they interrupt and disrespect the Sikh prayer at the opening session of Congress, or how they call 911 widows griefers.

Susanburns

Woohoo!

http://twitter.com/MAGuyton Morgan Guyton

I get my day by day handouts from Jesus. He created a culture of dependency that I’m proud to be a part of. Some people want to have it both ways: get grace from God and not share it with others. But Jesus had something to say about that: Matthew 18:21-35.

woodzy123

With all due respect, you assume all of our Founding Founders had some greater belief in God than Obama? What proof of this do you have? Many of them were religious, yes, but they were also political and intellectual as well. Scholars and historians still debate the intent of the founders, their beliefs, the role of religion and enlightenment in their creation of our government.

Your comment sadly reflects this odd phenomenon exhibited by so many so-called “Christians” — it seems like many presume to know what is in the heads, the hearts and the souls of others, particularly their intimate relationship with God, and judge it accordingly.

As a Christian myself, I don’t feel that is my role to judge others, but rather, God’s, and I am sure in the end, He or She will tell me how far I missed the mark in my beliefs and actions. It won’t be Mark Driscoll.